"but was also the sword of merchants and artisans who were forbidden by edict from wearing a katana".

So my statement was correct, the Katana was only to be carried by Law by samurai, but it was'nt the only sword carried by them!

Yours, and the writers opinion, not saying your'e wrong mate. But that is from another forum, from people like you and me.

And I never said the Wakizashi's SOUL purpose was for seppuku, I just stated it was often used for the act, which it was.

I never said you said that. But you said " The OTHER purpose...."

Although someone else seems to think the wakizashi was used for seppuku.

Yep, i din't deny it, i said the tanto was far more often used.

The wakizashi was always kept under the samurai's pillow while he slept, NOT as you suggested!

Again, not what i've heard been told my my iai masters. I'll ask them again. You seem to put a lot of faith in the written word.....and wikipedia, which is full of horsesh!t. Once again, i'm can't really say who is definitiley right. You have presented another theory to the one i have been told. If you're proved right, then great, i've learned something new, thanks.

A wakizashi was used as a samurai's weapon when the katana was unavailable. When entering a building, a samurai would leave his katana with a servant or page who would then let it rest on a rack called a katana-kake with the hilt pointing left so that it had to be removed with the left hand, passed to the right, then placed at the samurai's right, making it difficult to draw quickly, and reducing suspicion.

I didn't/dont disagree with you here, i merely suggested that leaving the katana at the doorway was more an individual house rule rather than common law.

Anyway I'm bored with finding links to back up my statements.

I've probably read more on Japans history and culture and the samurai/ninja than most people on this forum, I've read hundreds of books, and watched tons of documentaries, I don't say anything unless I'm sure it has factual content, I don't make wild guesses or make assumptions on what I've heard from other people.I read the facts and state them as I need to.

If you don't believe me, I suggest you do the research yourselves, before you start making statements That I'm definately wrong!

Thank you! rant over! :@

Facts! lol, We're talking about stuff which has been historically quite hard to substantiate. That why there are various different theories and methods of...
And i never said you were definitely wrong either. My opinions differ to yours, one of us will be right over some of the points in question. If you are right, then like i said, i've learned something new, please feel free to do a dance whilst juggling your 100's of samurai books. If it turns out some of what i say is correct, then by all means go burn your bloody books. 8)

Don't take things so personal dude.

"A man should never have sexual intercourse with another man. God hates that!" Leviticus 18.

Banzai Joe wrote: please feel free to do a dance whilst juggling your 100's of samurai books. If it turns out some of what i say is correct, then by all means go burn your bloody books. 8)

Funny! you should say that, (or not, rather) I lost virtually all of my books in a fire at my parents house 10 years ago.
Old house, even older wiring.
Most of the books I've never replaced.
It hurt too much to lose them once, I did'nt wanna tempt fate twice.

Banzai Joe wrote: please feel free to do a dance whilst juggling your 100's of samurai books. If it turns out some of what i say is correct, then by all means go burn your bloody books. 8)

Funny! you should say that, (or not, rather) I lost virtually all of my books in a fire at my parents house 10 years ago.Old house, even older wiring.Most of the books I've never replaced.It hurt too much to lose them once, I did'nt wanna tempt fate twice.

Crap! well you have my sympathy mate, that must have hurt. As you no doubt know, finding 'decent' books on this subject is hard. Ironically its probably why some of our opinions have differed, cos we've read from different literature, and some of it is pure crap. If i'm ever in doubt i usually ask one of the many japanese sensei that i have access to in either iaido or kendo. I often find the horses mouth to contain more truth than a non-nihon's written words. But, i am open to new/different theories. Its all good.

"A man should never have sexual intercourse with another man. God hates that!" Leviticus 18.

Unfortunately I don't have access to any instructors in my area, Desolute part of wales.

Yeh! it hurt like hell to lose my books, I'd collected them since I was a teen of about 13 yrs old and a lot of them had been presents to me from my family, since they all knew I was mad about jap culture and its history, obsessed would probably be closer.
A lot of the book are now out of print too.

Nevermind, though, their only books in the end, just material possessions, my parents escaped the fire and thats all that matters to me.

Though they lost a ton of irreplaceable stuff too, like baby photo's etc.

Ah! such is life.

Its pretty tough tracking down info on the 'net, Shame my japanese is'nt up to scratch, I'd probably find most of the info I needed to back up my claims, if I could peruse some of the jap sites, since the english ones do tend to quote speculation a lot and not fact.